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Dear read­er,

It’s time for Sharp­Brains month­ly e‑newsletter explor­ing the lat­est think­ing, sci­ence and tools for life­long brain health and men­tal well-being.

Enjoy!

New research:

• Psy­che­delics can pro­mote neur­al plas­tic­i­ty in the pre­frontal cor­tex and expand path­ways for men­tal health
• Drink­ing up to 5–8 glass­es of wine or beer a week not seen to increase demen­tia risk (that’s the good news; bad news is that >25% of old­er peo­ple start drink­ing more than that after the age of 60)
• Grow­ing research on the rela­tion­ship between sleep and Alzheimer’s Dis­ease
• Trig­ger warn­ings don’t work, may under­mine emo­tion­al resilience

New thinking:

• New book on how “For­est Bathing” can pro­mote phys­i­cal and men­tal health
• Meta-analy­sis finds val­ue in teach­ing the sci­ence of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, espe­cial­ly for math achieve­ment among at-risk stu­dents
• Quick brain teas­er to start the week off on the right foot (and mind)

New tools:

• Brain train­ing games could be used to assess cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties, replace the Mini-Men­tal State Exam (MMSE)
• New $30M ven­ture phil­an­thropy fund aims at rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing the diag­no­sis of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease
• Epi­ge­net­ics research opens poten­tial door to pre­vent neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­ders

Have a great month of Sep­tem­ber, and please take a moment to share this e‑newsletter with some­one who may enjoy it 🙂

The Sharp­Brains Team

– The Kumano Kodo trail in Japan

“Nature deficit dis­or­der” is a mod­ern afflic­tion. With more peo­ple liv­ing in cities, work­ing in high-rise office build­ings, and becom­ing addict­ed to their innu­mer­able elec­tron­ic devices, many of us are indeed expe­ri­enc­ing a nature deficit. This is true for chil­dren and adults alike.

In his new book, For­est Bathing: How Trees Can Help You Find Health and Hap­pi­ness, Japan­ese med­ical doc­tor and researcher Qing Li presents some sober­ing sta­tis­tics: By 2050, accord­ing to the Unit­ed Nations Pop­u­la­tion Divi­sion, three quar­ters of the world’s peo­ple will live in cities. Even now, the aver­age Amer­i­can spends 93 per­cent of the time indoors, and Read the rest of this entry »